Ninja Ride
by Dawnheart98
Summary: The Flock is plopped down right in the ninja world. Will they work together with the Konoha ninjas to save the village?
1. Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

Max woke up with a pounding sensation in her head. _Crap_, she thought. _What the heck is this? _Then, her mind split off into two directions. The unselfish side went through her internal roster. _Angel?_ She looked around and saw the beautiful blonde child crumpled on the dusty ground next to her older brother Gazzy. They were both conked out pretty deeply, if Max could make that assumption right away. _Nudge? _The cocoa-skinned tween was out cold on the other side of the dirt road. Her fashionable faded gray skinny jeans were beginning to look like cow skin: dark brown patches of mud splattered all over them. _Iggy?_ The pale strawberry blonde teen was passed out, half engulfed in a thick bush on the other side of the road. _Fang?_ Max felt an emptiness where the dark haired boy should have been. She didn't want to think of too many things at once. She was feeling lazy at that point in time. There was nothing wrong with saving alertness for battle, right?

The selfish part of her mind was complaining at the same time. _Why is it always me? Why am I always such a disaster magnet? _Did the danged headache signal The Dramatic Return Of The Voice?Or had she passed out during a battle with the Erasers? (How embarrassing.) Or possibly other miscellaneous Bad Dudes? (All the same, still embarrassing.)

"Guys!" Max said out loud, getting bored of the monotonous headache and silence. She needed to be constantly stimulated. Maybe that's why she was so equipped for battle? "Roll call! Everyone okay?"

"Max?" The brown haired girl turned towards the sound and saw Gazzy blink open his gorgeous blue eyes. He looked at her with a pained expression.

"How are you feeling there, trooper?" Max asked, trying not to sound too worried. She didn't want to seem overly worried over nothing. That is, she seriously hoped it was nothing.

"I feel awfu—", Gazzy began in a soft whine, then he stopped abruptly. "I mean…I'll be okay." He said in a normal, if not shaky, voice.

"Are you sure about that?" Max asked, feeling a pang of worry and pride mixed together. Little Gazzy, always the toughest one when you least expect it. And yet, he was still a little kid, it was okay to have older people looking after him. She didn't want to seem like she thought Gazzy was lying, but she just wanted to make sure. "Nothing serious?" Max checked.  
>"Any broken bones, sprains, etc.?"<p>

"Nah, just the normal everyday growing pains."

Max was half-relieved to hear the clear, sarcastic tone of the Ig-ster. She turned to him and saw him feeling his way out of the bush.

"Be careful!" Max cried. Oh, crap. It had just slipped out. Max hoped that Iggy wouldn't go on the blind-not-helpless rampage.

"Thorn bush?" Iggy asked, appearing to be unfazed. "I would complement the prank if it wasn't on me!"

"Hey, we didn't do it!" Nudge was already sitting up and helping Iggy out. "My head _hurts_! A lot!"

"Guys, it Angel okay?" Gazzy asked, his voice getting high pitched in worry.

"She's not up yet?" Max asked, apprehension rising inside her. Gazzy shook his head.

Max stood up. "Let's scout out this place. Nudge, you come with me. Iggy, Gazzy, watch out for Angel. We'll be back soon."

"What are you looking for?" Iggy asked.

Max felt a spark of irritation. Iggy had a good, legit question, but Max had no answer.

"Help?" Nudge offered, obviously trying to fill in an answer.

Max tried not to grimace. Help was the 'h-word'. She hated to think that she couldn't take care of herself and her family. But seriously, who didn't?

"Sure," Max said gruffly, not wanting to waste time debating it. "Plus, we need to figure out where we are. Do you guys recognize this place?"

"Now that you mention it…" Nudge trailed off, as she looked around deliberately.

"Okay, it's settled," Max said, feeling the need to emphasize that is _had_ been settled, even from the moment when she had first said it. "Be back in a Jif sandwich."

Nudge snorted and Max felt a nice warm feeling that someone had acknowledged her funny. She and Nudge walked further up the path, ears and eyes alert, and muscles ready to leap into action.

"What were we doing before this?" Nudge asked after a while, running her fingers through her long dark brown hair.

"I honestly have no clue," Max said with a sigh. She looked around. Unfortunately, this place was not getting any more familiar. That was not a good sign.

"Where are we?" Nudge asked.

"See above," Max said, feeling annoyed that she had to sound like a total idiot. She did know an awful lot about many things, but in this situation, she did not know the answers to any of the questions Nudge was asking. "Let's fly. This is _way_ too slow."

"I was just going to ask that," Nudge smiled. Max grinned back, forgetting her irritation. They both started running, the trees going by in a hazy green blur, and they snapped out their wings and soared into the air. Max wanted to forget all her troubles and just keep flying till she lost track of time, but she knew that she couldn't. She was flying with a purpose this time.

She and Nudge had been scouting for a while longer. Max was just about to make a sarcastic remark about being in the middle of nowhere, when Nudge spoke up.

"Hey, look at that!"

"What?" Max asked, annoyed after a while, because she couldn't see anything but trees.

"I … thought I saw something," Nudge said, her dark eyes now extremely confused. "But…"

"Well, let's follow it," Max suggested. "Spontaneous is good. Besides, it's the first think we've seen in forever."

"True that!" Nudge said gratefully. Max angled her wings and she and Nudge began their dizzying spiral down, down, down to the ground. They skidded to a stop and looked around wearily.

"Now what?" Nudge asked.

"Well, I really don't like doubting your vision," Max said thoughtfully, getting ready to answer Nudge's question. If you couldn't trust the precision and accuracy of a hawk's eye view then what could you trust in this world? The phrase "watch like a hawk" took on a whole new meaning for them, anyway. "Let's fly a little lower now. We'll follow that path."

Nudge and Max took to the air again, but only a few feet above the ground, this time. Max noticed the path getting wider and wider, until suddenly they were in sight of a town. Max thought it was a town, because of the huge archway-gate thing that was in front. She couldn't tell how big the town was, but it couldn't be too small if it had its own monument.

"Yay!" Nudge cheered. "I'm starved."

And of course, as soon as Nudge said it, Max began feeling the pangs of hunger. They approached the town and there was a huge red gate. Max saw two men sitting at a desk on the "in" side of the gate.

"Do we have to check in, or something?" Nudge asked, obviously noticing the same things Max did.

"I dunno," Max said dubiously. "I'd really like dot get in and out as fast as possibly without talking to anyone."

"But how are we going to get help for Angel?" Nudge asked.

Crap. Good point. "Okay, well, let's just appear normal for as long as possible." Max said. "No need to scare them off when we kind of need them."

"Unless we have to scare them," Nudge added with a knowing grin.

Max smirked. "You got that right."

Max and Nudge landed again and walked the rest of the yards to the city. Max felt the wary gaze of the guards, or whatever they were, on her, and it set her on edge.

"Nudge, you're better at talking then me, aren't you?"

Nudge looked at Max in surprise. "Um, in what perspective?"

"Great," Max said. "Explain to those guys what's going down. I'm going back to get the others…"

Nudge looked at Max warily. "What if I get in trouble?"

"Fly outta there. We'll be in the air too, so just meet us. Then we'll all bail."

Nudge appeared to only be half-satisfied with that answer. "Okay…"

Max whirled around and sped down the path. She desperately wanted to fly back to her friends as fast as possible, but knew that she couldn't snap out her wings right in front of those guards. It would freak them out.

Max quickly got into the cover of the forest. She whipped out her wings and sped in the direction of her friends. Water almost came to her eyes but she saw a blur of unusual color and began skidding in midair. She swooped downward and landed off balance. She took a few giant steps to steady herself. A kick sailed her way, and she ducked quickly, setting herself more off balance.

"Watch it!" Max snarled. She saw Iggy crouched in a fighting stance. "Oh, hey, Ig."

"Wow, thanks," Iggy said sarcastically. Max knew that he was going to make some comment about how "that is the only greeting I get? Wow I'm so unpopular" or something along those lines.

"We found a town," Max said. "It seems pretty big. We didn't go in. There are guards at the gates. Nudge is talking to them. Come on."

"Whoa…Are you sure this is safe?" Gazzy asked, his blue eyes watery.

"If it's not, we fly outta there and take Angel with us," Max said, trying to sound reassuring. "Come on, it's the best chance we have!"

Gazzy still looked doubtful, but Iggy was already standing up, with Angel secured in his arms.

"Let's jet," he said, and Max scoffed inwardly at the funny.

Max took off into the air, knowing that her friends were following. She could almost feel the worry rolling off of Gazzy. It was almost infecting her, too. _How good of an idea could this really be? _Max shrugged to herself and sighed loudly. _We'll just have to wait and see._


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

Max and her friends landed and began walking after they lost the cover of the forest. They walked closer towards the brick wall with green gates, and they could see the guards' facial features. One had black spiky hair with a white bandage over his nose. The other had a beanie-type hat with a metal piece over his dark brown hair. He also had black eyes. Max saw their lips moving as if muttering an incantation, but Max thought that they were probably talking to each other. She knew the stealth drill! She went through it on several occasions herself.

"Hello," the spiky haired man greeted. "Are you the expected guests?"

"Could be," Max said difficultly. "Who are you expecting?"

"Yeah, they're with me," Nudge said, stepping out from behind the little structure from which they were sitting. It was like a little visitor center, but with a desk at which they were sitting, and a back wall, and a roof. That was pretty much it.

"Welcome to Konoha," the dark brown haired man said.

"Konoha?" Iggy asked expectantly. Max tried to mask her confusion, but the rest of them, well, at least Nudge and Gazzy, weren't making much of an effort to.

The guards glanced at each other quickly. The one with spiky black hair picked up a pen and looked at Max expectantly. She arched an eyebrow meaningfully at them. _Yes…?_

"The information please," the dark brown haired one said, as if it should have been obvious.

"We don't give our private information to strangers," Max leered, with a hand on her hip. She was having way too much fun, and almost forgetting the entire purpose of their mission.

One of the guards narrowed his eyes dangerously. Max got the feeling that he wouldn't tolerate much more screwing around. He seemed as dangerous as any of the Flock could be. "Stop messing around, kid. You follow the rules or you don't get into the village."

"Look, this little girl needs help," Iggy spoke up. Max inwardly slapped him for taking over. Outwardly, she tried to look uncaring. She begrudgingly silently allowed Iggy to take over for a few seconds. He might actually get them somewhere. Why hadn't _she_ thought to pull out the Angel card?

"You wouldn't deny her help, would you?" Iggy continued. Max reluctantly agreed that Iggy was doing a pretty good job. The guards looked uncertain now.

The guards looked a little miffed at Iggy's statement, too. Max wished Iggy could see their faces. It was pretty funny. She would have to tell him later. Max wanted to silently thank Iggy but would have to do that later as well.

"We should know what to do about this," the dark brown haired one muttered.

"Lady Tsunade will get mad if we go to her with such a little problem," the other one said.

"Hello, Kamizuki and Hagane!" a man's voice asked.

"Yo, what's up?" asked a child's voice.

Everyone turned to looked at the sound and saw a little boy, possibly Nudge's age, with dark eyes ,spiky black hair that stuck straight up, and a long dark blue scarf around his neck, even though it wasn't cold, that trailed on the ground. There was a man standing behind him. The man had a spiky, dark pony and kind black eyes. He had on an olive green vest with tons of pockets. The vest matched the ones the two guards were wearing. After Max had noticed that, it as obvious to see that all the men, including the little scarf boy, had on a headband with a silver metal headpiece with a weird symbol on it. Was it come sort of voodoo clan marking?

"We have unaccountable visitors," one of the guards said with a little angry sigh, and a glance at Max. She stared definitely back at him, which seemed to set him even more off edge.

"What village did you guys come from?" the little boy asked, his large dark brown eyes skimming over Max, Nudge, and Iggy, but locking immediately with Gazzy's light blue ones.

"They refuse say," one of the guards said, sending an irritated look at the Flock's direction. Max gave him an innocent smile, which seemed to set him off edge even _more_. She giggled inwardly. _Yes_, she thought triumphantly. _Max-ifed!_

The man who had arrived with the scarf boy raised his eyebrows. "If this is a prank, it is definitely a very elaborate one."

Max raised her eyebrows in surprise. This dude had a sense of humor! How refreshing.

"We aren't joking," Iggy said, dead seriously, and totally killing the mood. Max sighed huffily. "She really needs help," Iggy continued. He held up Angel a little bit. The man's head jerked back a little, and his tiny eye became even tinier for a second.

"Oh, my!" he cried out in surpirse. "We'll take them to the hospital," the man said urgently to the guards. The guards widened their eyes and their mouths dropped open in animated surprise.

"You can't do that! It's illegal!" one of the guards said, standing up.

"We'll get in trouble!" the other guard cried.

"Don't worry, we will escort them," the ponytailed man said. He turned to Max in a way that said _don't prove me wrong of you'll be sorry. _Max tried to shoot her own glance back at him that said _we will if we have to._

"We'll watch them like hawks!" the little boy said, smiling impishly at the Flock.

Gazzy smirked and Max felt a small glimmer of pride. _Even small Gazzy sees the humor in that. _Then again, Gazzy wasn't that small anymore.

"Come," the ponytailed man said, gesturing with his hand. "Follow me."

The Flock walked silently behind the man. "I am Iruka," the man said after a few moments. "This is Konohamaru," he said, pointing to the scarf boy.

"Hey, why did you tell them that?" Konohamaru cried out indignantly. "What if they are spies?" Konohamaru cried. _Wow_, Max thought, exchanging amused glanced with Nudge. _Well, he has a good point. We very well could be. These guys were almost as paranoid as us, then. Possibly._

Iruka glanced around the Flock, and his gaze landed on Max. His small dark eyes were questioning as if to ask Max is she was going to break his trust. Max tried not to answer anything with her eyes, but she wasn't sure how well that worked out. "Let's hope we can trust them." the man said finally.

Max was looking around, taking in all the sights. It seemed like a busy town, but it wasn't very loud at all. It was calming and yet irking. Max wasn't really used to this _town_ business, or this _help_ business for that matter. She and her Flock got a few stares, though not as many as Max would have expected. She was glad for that. Some glances were cautious, but most of the others were just curious.

"Here we are," Iruka said. "Hopefully they are having a relatively slow day. Either way, they will take in everyone."

Max didn't like the way he had said that. They weren't charity cases! Her fist balled up intuitively, and Iruka's eyes shrunk in surprise again. He looked at Max questioningly.

Konohamaru looked up at Nudge, then towards Gazzy. Max wondered if she saw a curious light in the boy's dark eyes but her gaze was drawn to the building in front of them because of the radiating dull silence emanating from it.

They walked into the building and they saw a few people bustling around. Max wondered what a "busy' day for the hospital was. Max followed Iruka through the hospital, surprised at the amount of attention they were receiving (it was very little to none at all!) It begged the question, _were they used to seeing bird kids here? _Then, Max reminded herself that they didn't _know_ her Flock was full of bird kids. At least, as far as _she_ knew, which, she wanted to think was more than what _they_ knew. Iruka led them to a desk and told the lady sitting behind it minimal information. The lady was young, in her twenties, or so, with black hair and black eyes. She gazed at Angel with a look of puzzlement. Then, a girl's voice greeted Iruka and the front desk lady cheerfully.

"Hey, what's up?" the girl asked. She blinked a light green eye in confusion. She was tall, thin, and pretty. She had on a short, purple cut off top and a black miniskirt, and black boots. Max wondered how much less clothing someone could put on. Then, she realized that she didn't want to think about it. The girl's hair was in an extremely long blonde ponytail and her bangs completely covered one eye. Her visible eye was fringed with long dark lashes. She looked at Max in curiosity. Then, her green gaze slid to Iggy, and Max tried not to notice any of the emotions flashing through the green eye at that time. Max wondered how much she was glad that Iggy was blind. Surely he would have been staring at her midriff the entire time.

"Come with me," the girl said. Max hoped that she hadn't only been talking to Iggy…If so, then something would have to go down, right there, right then. Something like punching her in her pretty face. She saw Nudge and Gazzy beginning to follow the girl. Gazzy tapped Iggy's hand, which still wrapped around Angel. Max noticed Iruka turning to leave, and she tried to call to him silently. She wasn't going to demean herself anymore by saying it out loud, but she truly didn't want him to leave just yet. She didn't quite trust that blonde girl completely. And it wasn't just her protective instincts kicking in. Yeah, she should have been suspicious of every freaking person in this whole place, but she didn't have that luxury right now. Iruka seemed like the only person that was capable of really caring about them. She didn't really have a good background with people like that, but Iruka seemed genuine. Unfortunately, he hadn't received her silent call. He was already halfway out of the hospital by now.

Max turned around and saw her Flock and the blonde girl walking further down the hall. She felt a flash of anger. How dare they leave her behind?

"I'm Ino, by the way," the blonde girl was saying.

"Hi! I'm Nudge!" Nudge said immediately, beaming. Max tried not to scowl.

"Who's this?" Ino asked, turning to Iggy. Max felt her mouth twist into a snarl. Was Ino trying to flirt…?

"That's Angel," Gazzy said. "She's my sister. There's something wrong with her…"

Blondie made an apologetic face. Max wanted to gag at the fakeness of it all. Its cheesiness made Max feel lactose intolerant. Blondie put a hand on Gazzy's shoulder, and that made Max fall off the edge. That was it! _The last straw! Don't touch my family!_ Max thought furiously, trying glare flames at Blondie. It obviously wasn't working, because she was saying comforting words to Gazzy now. _Stop, stop, stop!_ Max ordered, to no avail. "Don't worry, we'll have Angel fixed up in no time!" Blonde smiled, tilting her head cutely.

Max rolled her eyes. She reviewed the plan in her mind, and nodded to herself. _Yes, perfect_, she thought. _Angel gets better, then we get the heck out of here_. 


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

Max followed her Flock and Blondie down the hallway…still. _How long is this freaking hallway?_ Max though grouchily to herself. _This is crap. _

Blondie was still reassuring Gazzy. "Don't worry. We'll have her fixed up in no time! You guys weren't involved in any battles so it should be something relatively simple!"

"Actually," Max contradicted testily, "there is an especially good chance that Angel has been in battle with us." Blondie looked at Max in surprise, as if she hadn't expected Max to be able to talk. Max wondered whether she should smirk or scowl.

"Battle? But aren't you normal villagers?" she asked, her green eye become wider.

"We definitely aren't _normal_," Nudge said ominously. Max sent her a warning look. Blondie looked at her with surprise. She was probably thinking of something else…aside from what was the real deal…

"You guys don't have headbands, though," Blondie said, as if she was still trying to put them in a category.

"I don't look good in headbands," Nudge said, as if that would settle everything.

"You aren't wearing one either," Max pointed out hotly.

Ino pointed to her waist. Surely enough, there was the same incomplete circle design on the navy cloth. "That is a belt," Max said, as if she was teaching a toddle different forms of clothing. Blondie smiled at her. "Well you can wear it however you want!" Max wanted to shake her head in confusion, but forced her neck muscles to stay where they were. Was Blondie trying to make friends? _That is not going to work out well! _Max thought.

"In here," Blondie said, pushing open a door. Finally. They all filed in and Gazzy showed Iggy to a chair. Max took Angel from Iggy and set her on the table. Her eyes were still closed, as if she was just sleeping. Max hoped that she would wake up soon.

Blondie came up beside Max and coughed softly. Max turned to glare at her. The blonde girl just turned and said politely, "Excuse me." Max walked back to the wall, and stood beside Gazzy. Ino rubbed her hands together, and waved them above Angel's body. _What the crap is this? Some kind of psychic therapy? _

Then, green stuff swarmed at the blonde girl's hands and she waved them over Angel's body again.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Max cried out, leaping towards Ino. Was she trying to freaking kill Angel? Ino cried out in surprise and stepped back from the impact of Max's body.

"Watch it!" Ino shrieked, skidding across the floor, sliding into a fighting stance. _Oh, you can fight? _Max asked her mentally. _Well, not well enough obviously! _Ino glared at Max, her green eyes glittering with words that she didn't say out loud. _Curse me all you want! _Max thought, trying to force down a smug smile. She was still worried about Angel here—not thinking about her own victory, no, not at all! "Calm down!" Ino said again. "There's nothing to worry about—I assure you, I am a certified medic ninja!"

"Yeah, and I'm a certified butt kicking machine," Max said.

"What's a medic ninja?" Nudge asked.

"You are a ninja?" Iggy asked, his blind eyes widening in surprise.

Ino looked at them in confusion. "You guys... Where are you from?"

"Not from here obviously," Max said with biting sarcasm. "We're actually exchange students from Hogwarts-explains our _ignorance_."

"Um…Okay."

Max glanced at Nudge like, _Can you believe her? _Nudge didn't return the smugness. She, instead, looked a little worried!

"Can you all wait one second, here?" Ino asked suddenly, making towards the door.

Max bristled, and stood erect. "Why, so you can bring in your buddies and ambush us?"

"No, of course not." Blondie closed her eyes for a moment; the look seemed arrogant to Max. _The start of a great rivalry, _Max thought. "I just... Well, this case might be a bit bigger than I can handle on my own... I'll have to check with my superiors..."

Max glared at her as she left the spotless room. Max waited for the door to click behind her, for her footsteps to patter down the hall... She waited.. and waited... There were no footsteps, but Max didn't feel the presence behind the door. Is she a vampire? Max wondered. She inwardly shook her head as she turned to her team, unaware that her pointed hatred was overpowering the aura in the room.

"We're leaving," Max said, "_now._"

"Um, no, we can't," Iggy said mimicking Max's tone. _Was the world trying to make her angry? _Max wondered. "We have to fix Angel."

"_Superiors_?" Max sneered. "_Can't handle it?_ I don't believe a single word of that bull crap! This is an ambush!"

"Max, normally we agree with you on these things," Nudge took on a diplomatic tone that made Max want to suck all the cockiness out of her. But she waited it out. She _was _on the Flock's side after all-she had to get them to realize that. "But, maybe since we aren't agreeing with you this time, you should believe us..."

Max wasn't sure what she was expecting, but it sure wasn't that.

"What if these guys are real ninjas?" Iggy asked.

"Then we can take all of them, fair and square," Max replied.

"What if they have some special Japanese cure for Angel that we couldn't find anywhere else?" Gazzy asked, his big blue eyes a little too mystified for Max to take his words seriously.

"I seriously doubt that," she said voicing her thoughts. Just then, the door crashed open, causing Max to spazz for a second. It was terribly embarrassing. Everything about these _ninjas_ just... ARGH!

With Blondie, was... _another_ blondie. But Blondie II had darker, yellowish hair in two loose pigtails down her back, amber eyes, and a small purple diamond on her forehead. There was also a pink haired chick with huge green eyes that looked annoyingly _curious_ about the whole thing. Blondie II, who looked a few years older than Pinkie and Blondie, was obviously their leader.

BII exploded into the room, striking a dramatic, leader-y stance, and glared into Max's eyes. "Who are you, and what are you doing my village?"

Pinkie and BI looked appalled. "-Tsunade-sama-" Pinkie stuttered. "That's not a very nice way to treat refugees!"

"Besides, we take in all nin-people-," BI corrected herself, "who need help."

"And what seems to be the problem?" Tsunade asked impishly.

Max wanted to say, "Nothing-we'll be leaving this freak show, good bye," but she let Iggy take over as she mulled over the irony of her previous thought.

"We don't know what the problem is, and neither did Ino."

"Well, that's not surprising," Pinkie grinned, in a troll-like way, at Ino. The ponytailed ninja's jaw dropped. "S-Sakura-"

"Both of you shut the heck up and let me work!" Tsunade yelled at the two girls. They snapped to attention, both of them thin sticks-even thinner when they weren't waving their arms around and doing weird things.

After ten minutes of stiff prodding and poking, and after some more magical green stuff flew around, Tsunade turned around and made her way to the door. "Nope, there's nothing we can do. It's a lost cause. Good bye."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, _hey_!" Max cried. "We didn't go through all that trouble just for you to give up and leave!"

"Yeah, you did." Pinkie snapped. "Don't talk to the Hokage like that!"

"What trouble did YOU go through?" Ino scowled. "You didn't do anything!"

"There must be something you can do!" Nudge called out. Tsunade was already out the door. Nudge and Gazzy hung their heads low. The blonde boy's eyes watered, and Max's heart contorted as she watched him. She grabbed the collars of the two ninja-girls' shirts threateningly, and gave them her best glare.

"Find a cure," she said. "Don't you have some special remedy? Some save-all-thing?"

Pinkie pushed Max away with surprising force-causing Ino to stumble in the direction that Max fell. "Even if we had something like that, why would we waste it on you-ungrateful, useless creatures?"

_Creatures... _Max snapped open her wings. _This was not going to end well for the ninjas._


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

The sight was not pretty.

One of the walls coughed up clouds of dust, and bits and pieces of plaster. There was a suspiciously human(oid) shape in another. Max's body hadn't been exhausted this quickly... ever. That she could remember. What's worse was that Sakura and Ino looked fine-in her standard, of course. Whatever standards it was, it made Max focus her anger into her fists as she flew towards them, ready to punish.

As much as Nudge, Gazzy, and Iggy tried to help, there just wasn't much room after the fourteen foot wingspan was unleashed. Plus, Sakura had some serious strength-and that was a scary thought, since it was coming from a super-strong bird kid. Sakura caused mini _earthquakes! _It was freaky, and really restricting the rest of the Flock's helping abilities.

"Max, stop!" Nudge finally yelled. "Angel!"

"I can't stop and let them win!" Max replied.

"The girl is right!" Ino said. "Why are you fighting us anyway? Is this how you repay our kindness?"

"What is going on here?"

The ninja girls stopped in their tracks. Max was mid punch, and didn't like how the ninja girls disentangled themselves from her and stood straight, next to each other. They bowed low.

The figure in the door was a black haired woman, with black eyes, holding a small pink pig of all things. Max didn't even question it by now. _What the heck is this place?_

"Shizune, we were attacked, unprovoked!" Sakura stammered, her eyes wide, staring at Max, then at the black haired woman.

Ino held up her hand. "We were irresponsible. We put a patient's life in danger. We are sorry."

"Well, it's not for me to forgive you, though I would," Shizune added quickly. "It's not my hospital, after all."

Ino and Sakura looked at each other, and both gulped audibly.

"I don't fancy being you now," Shizune said, with an unnaturally happy tone. "Come!" she said. "Tsunade-sama will need to be alerted about this!"

"Do the villagers need to come?" Ino asked.

"Sure, why not," Shizune muttered under her breath, her tone becoming much less light hearted now. Her dark eyes somehow got darker. "Tsunade-sama may need to learn of this as well."

"Maybe we should break it to her slowly," Max overheard Ino whispering to Sakura. The pink haired girl nodded reverently.

"We might not make it back alive.."

Max was now mildly curious to see where they would go. Ino and Sakura filed out, and Shizune gestured for the Flock to follow.

"Who's going to stay here with Angel?" Nudge asked.

"I will," Gazzy said immediately.

"No, you won't, Iggy will," Max said. Thankfully, Iggy didn't reply. Max didn't really want to leave him behind- she would have wanted another experienced fighter on her side in case of emergency, but Angel needed him here, too.

Eventually, they reached a grand, wooden double-door. Shizune knocked and announced herself, along with the rest of the gang. She let them in, and Max was a bit surprised to see the same lady-BII-there, sitting behind a desk, her huge chest spilling out audaciously. Folders were piled high on her desk, and papers were scattered about everywhere.

Shizune gave Tsunade the story, and Max watched Tsunade's expression. It didn't change much. It looked displeased when her eyes were on Ino and Sakura-they looked thoroughly ashamed of themselves which Max didn't allow to lift her spirits. How simple would that be...

"What's our punishment?" Sakura asked after a few minutes of awkward silence.

"You will form a squad with these villagers and defeat the rouge ninjas that have been troubling our borders for some time."

"What?" Ino yelled. "Work with them?"

"Those rogue ninjas?" Sakura blinked. "You havne't had time to deal with them all this time..."

"All the more reason to fix the problem now, right?" Tsunade checked. "Not that I had asked your opinion, anyway..."

Ino and Sakura shut right up.

"Um, no thanks," Max said. "We don't sell our services-not that we have any services available in the first place. If you'll kindly fix Angle, we'll just be on our way..."

"No, we can't _fix_ Angel until _you_ help us defeat the rouges," Tsunade said.

Max snorted. "That doesn't work."

"It does indeed, young and foolish villager," Tsunade said. "The rogues happen to have set up camp where those special herbs that just might save your Angel are."

"Funny how that works," Nudge whispered. Sakura snuck an approving look at the tween. Max wanted to tell her to watch who she was staring at, but, well...

"It seems fishy."

"The only thing fishy here is Ichiraku Ramen's new fish special," Tsunade said. Max had no idea what Ichiraku Ramen was but she did know that Tsunade's comeback was flashy.

"Now, wait a minute," Ino said, "why are they coming, anyway? They'll just be deadweight."

"No, they won't," Tsunade said as Max fumed. "You pitted your skills against hers. Surely you didn't have to waste my time with that question?"

Ino sent a dirty look at Max. Max wondered whether she liked Tsunade a teensy bit more now.

"Fine. Whatever." Max tapped her foot impatiently. "Now, hopefully you will give us a place to stay until we leave with your ninjas to fight these rogue things."

"Of course," Tsunade said coldly. "Ino, you can take leave now." Ino looked joyous at that fact. "And you will find a place for these villagers-"

"You can refer to us as the Flock," Max scowled, not likin the tern villagers at all."

"You will find a place for this _Flock_ to stay. Make sure we can call on them within short notice." Ino's temporary good mood was quite short. She whipped around sulkily and made her way to the door.

"Sakura, find a new room for this Angel to stay, then get back to work. Shizune, go find the construction ninjas...Make it an urgent order."

Max followed Ino out. They walked past the reception lady again, who cheerily bid them farewell. Nudge was the only one out of all of them to have enough grace to return the adieu.

Ino signed them up at a nearby hotel, and looked even more put out at the fact that she had to pay for them. Max thought it was fair-she didn't even know what currency they used!

Ino smiled at her tiredly. "I'll get more info from Tsunade-sama, and let you know about it-ok?"

Max shrugged. "Sure."

Ino nodded, and walked out of the small lobby. A wrinkly Asian woman looked at them a bit unkindly. "If it weren't for Ino….Who knows…" she muttered, among other things, under her breath. She led them up a flight of stairs and down a thin hallway.

"Hold on," the lady squeaked, and she slipped inside the room. They heard a rustling noise, and something moving across the wooden floor that was probably in the room. Finally, the old lady came out. The last room _was_ theirs, apparently.

"Here you go," the old lady croaked. "Enjoy!"

"Thank you so much," Nudge said sweetly, smiling. The old lady patted Nudge on the head and walked away.

_Suck up, _Max wanted to say, but, as hard as it was for her to admit, Nudge probably had the right idea. These people were going to help Angel, anyway. Max would have to try to be more nice to them.

"Can't we start now?" Gazzy asked.

Max sat on one of the beds. The room had apparently been divided into two single-bed room before. Max thought it was courteous of the lady to do that. But then again how else were five kids going to fit anywhere? "Start what?"

"Helping Angel!"

"Well, first of all…." Max began, but decided not to continue. Gazzy wouldn't like the answer anyway… "I suppose we'd better stock up our supplies, then get some rest. We'll have busy days ahead of us."

"Maybe we should have asked Ino for more money," Nudge said.

"Yeah, well," Max looked around, not sure what she was looking for. Danger, maybe? Money? Falling from the sky?

"She probably wouldn't like that very much," Gazzy said, pouting angrily and pointedly at Max.

"What?" Max's expression screamed at him. He huffed and stared at Iggy.

"This should be interesting," Iggy said.

"This" as in Sakura and Ino? As in this bogus mission they were about to go on? As in this whole situation there were in? Oh, yeah. "Interesting" didn't begin to describe it…


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE

Max was dreaming. The Flock-the _entire_ Flock—was fighting Erasers again. Even Ari was there. The next thing Max knew, the Flock was running away. _Why are we running away? Stop! _Then, in the unrealistic way that dreams do things, she and Fang were suddenly alone, lying down together. She felt scorched under his gaze and shivered as he whispered things into her ear.

"Max…Max…Max…"

"Hey, come on, wake _up_."

Reality was a cold unfamiliar touch on her arm. Max sat up with a jolt, feeling static shoot up her arm.

"Whoa-okay-you're awake!" a low, rusty voice cried out.

"Obviously," Max muttered. She saw a tall dark brown haired boy in a leather jacket, and two red marks drawn from underneath his eyes, down to his chin. He looked like he was trying to be Native American, or something. Nudge was dressed, and looking fresh (freshly showered?) And pretty much everyone was ready, except her.

"So, what is going on?" Max grumbled. She felt wronged-kicked out of her _birth right_ almost! She should be the one to schedule things…

"We have to _leave_…" the Navajo boy said.

Max stared out the window at the perfect day and sighed gustily. "When do I have to be ready by?" she asked.

"An hour ago," Navajo said crisply.

"Damn," Max said. She threw off the covers and leisurely stood up. She was glad that she decided to wear shorts to bed the previous night. Well... she hadn't even been able to decide what to wear since she got here! Stupid ninjas. The pink haired one Sakura came and gave her and Nudge some clothes and left with a courteous—or pretentious!—bow.

Navajo and Nudge left the room leaving Max in Nudge's perfect cleanliness, contrasted by Max's unmade bed. _Well whatever! There's no time. _Max wondered how long she should take to get ready. She brushed her teeth and decided to skip her hair—and the shower. She changed into the leggings that were on the chest and pulled on the plain white tank top over her cami. She regarded the brown tunic dress thingy with scorn and zipped up her hoodie. She slipped into her boots and she was ready. The question was—where _they_?

She walked out into the deserted hallway, only a little annoyed that Nudge hadn't waited for her. She went downstairs and walked out into the bright midmorning sun. She saw the two girls from yesterday talking on the porch of the building. Blondie looked really satisfied with herself, and was putting something in her pocket. Sakura's arms were crossed over her chest, and her mouth was twisted in a pout.

"Oh, there she is," Blondie sang. "Good morning!" the cheery voice slapped Max in the face.

"Yeah," Max said.

"Okayyy," Blondie said, dancing around Sakura. "Have fuuuun! Don't forget to write!"

Sakura looked kind of pissed. "Okay, bye, Ino," she said just as sugary-sweetly. Ino flounced off.

Sakura turned her smile onto Max, trembling a little. "Kiba and Nudge are already at the gate—we should get there soon.

"Right." Max said, stretching her arms over her head. "Whenever you're ready."

Sakura speed-walked down the dusty road.

"Did you sleep well?" Sakura asked, looking over her shoulder. She was still smiling. It was getting a little unnerving.

"I guess," Max said. "It was really warm in the night."

"That happens here sometimes," Sakura said apologetically. "I sleep in layers usually."

"Fascinating," Max said. Sakura blushed and diverted her gaze away from Max. She pushed the pace a little bit. Max was glad when she saw the gate towering above the rest of the buildings. When they got to the gate, Nudge was talking animatedly to Navajo and this time Max was surprised by Clifford the white shaggy dog.

"What's that?" Max asked.

"Oi! Sakura!" It was Navajo.

"Hold on," Sakura whispered. "O-hi-yo, Kamizuki and Hagane!" Sakura greeted. The same guards were at the desk-hut. They waved to Sakura.

One of them chuckled, and eyed Max. "Well, it's not morning, still, is it?"'

Max wondered if he wanted to get punched in the face.

"You lost, did you?" Navajo said, ambling up to them.

"Lost what?" Max asked.

Sakura sent him a cold stare. He smirked, putting his hands up defensively. "Just kidding." Then he looked at Max, and glanced back at Nudge. "This is our team…?"

Sakura stared at him levelly. "Don't you dare make a comment about the gender ratio…"

Kiba chuckled. "Wasn't going to!"

"You should feel lucky," one of the guards said, raising an eyebrow.

Navajo rolled his eyes. "OMG totally," he replied.

"Ready to go?" the other guard one said.

"_Yes_," Sakura said, her smile taut. "You gave us the map, right…?"

"No but I have them," Kiba said, fishing in the horse-saddle that was on Clifford (who might as well have been a furry unicorn or something). He showed her a yellowed scroll. She nodded.

"There's no use stalling here anymore," she said. "We'll be off then!"

"Can I ride Akamaru?!" Nudge asked clasping her hands together pleadingly.

Navajo arched an eyebrow. "He's not a donkey that you just ride willy nilly."

Nudge didn't look put out. "When you ride him can I sit with you?"

Sakura grinned at Nudge. "Kiba, it will be fine!"

"Akamaru doesn't like strangers," Kiba said.

Akamaru stalked away from Kiba and nosed Nudge's hair.

Sakura raised her eyebrows. "Indeed!"

"Should we be like…. strategizing or something," Max wondered from the back. She was getting _sooooo_ bored.

Kiba and Sakura exchanged glances.

"Eh," Kiba shrugged.

"We'll do it later," Sakura giggled.

"When are we going to get there?" Max asked.

"If we hurry," Kiba said.

"Yeah let's hurry," Max interrupted.

Kiba stared. "_Okay _well _normally_ we would but this isn't a _normal_ mission."

"We can keep up if that's the _abnormality_ that you are implying." Max said, stalking forward.

Kiba didn't look like he was going to back down from her accosting. "I have only your word to go by on that."

"I'm sure Nudge would be happy to put in another for us."

"Kiba!" Sakura grinned. She looked at Max. "Guys!"

"_What_?" Max asked in the same high pitched voice that Sakura used.

"Can we stop for lunch?" Nudge asked. Sakura looked over at Nudge lovingly.

"Yeah I didn't eat breakfast." Max informed them.

"You also slept in for like ever," Kiba asked. "When we have missions, we normally don't laze around."

"Well I still didn't eat breakfast," Max said.

"We know," Kiba returned.

"You know what, Kiba," Sakura said. "Why don't you and Nudge ride Akamaru and Max and I will follow you?"

"Yes!" Nudge exclaimed. She hugged Clifford. He didn't seem to mind Nudge's PDA.

"That sounds like a horri—"

"Ahh!" Kiba continued. "Just kidding!"

Max smirked inwardly at how Kiba was completely wrapped around Sakura's finger. Was he who Sakura was trying to impress by wearing such a girly dress?

Akamaru kneeled down like a doggish knight and Kiba helped Nudge on. He sat behind her and Akamaru stood up.

"Yip yip!" Nudge squealed.

Everyone stared at her.

She giggled. "Sorry!"

Akamaru dashed away, sending a wind that whipped Max's hair back.

"Ready?" Sakura grinned.

Max shrugged. "Whatever."

Max was not at all pleased to follow Sakura but it was whatever right? This whole thing was whatever. Sakura decided to take to the trees—so did Akamaru—and Max decided to take to the sky. She couldn't really fly in the trees like they could jump or leapfrog or whatever the heck they were doing so she barely grazed the crowns of the trees. She could see them occasionally which was enough to keep her on their course.

Max did some aerial tricks that didn't require a lot of space. She wondered how she felt about Nudge flirting with Kiba. She decided that she didn't like it. First of all Nudge shouldn't be flirting with anyone. Second of all these people were like… what if this was all a dream? Like the Matrix or something? That would be super awkward. Sakura could keep Kiba to himself. The less ninja in the Flock's lives the better.

She thought she saw something in the distance but it was underneath the trees' shade so she couldn't make it out—even with her pinpoint perfect hawk's vision. Perfectly hidden—but prey was perfectly hidden too wasn't it? Max realized that she was flying at a higher altitude than she originally planned. She tilted down a little and saw the things flash by in the sunlight again. It was really unnerving her. She surged ahead knowing that if it was food, that would be awesome; people, she could take them; and nothing, well that would be really boring.

She heard a shriek that jolted her heart into her throat. Was it Nudge? _Nudge wouldn't do that_, Max thought as instinct lead her to dive through the fluffy treetops. She narrowly missed an arrow. She wasn't expecting Robin Hood's crew! She had nowhere to fly and it was really annoying. She folded her wings in halfway and looked around. She was in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of a battle, and she didn't know who she was fighting.

"Nudge?" she called.

"Get down!" someone shrieked. Someone tackled her from the side pushing her to the forest floor. She kicked and flailed.

"Dammit—stop that!"

Kiba.

"What the hell was that for?"

"Shut up!"

Max wiggled away. Kiba lost his grip on her and he glared.

"Stay here," he said and jumped away.

Max got up and leaped after him. _That was the stupidest order of your life._


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

Kiba was yelling out random things and he was fighting in perfect sync with Clifford. It was kind of cool. Max was hiding—she cringed at the word—in a tree as Sakura did major damage to the ecosystems around them with her fists. It was kinda badass—but Max wouldn't tell her that.

_Shit. Where's Nudge? _

Max scanned the ground around them but she was not there. _Dammit! _Max's heart pounded. She balled up her hand, letting her nails dig into her palm, and punched the rough bark. _Why did I let her out of my sight?! _

"Max!"

Max looked up eagerly. "Nudge?!"

No. It was Sakura. She leapt away just as a random other guy—Kiba?—hopped in her place. What were they doing, a mating dance?

Sakura leaped forward and landed a punch right in his face. Okay it probably wasn't Kiba.

"Look out!"

Max looked back to see two knives clink in contact a few inches from her nose.

"God!" she gasped.

"What are you doing, sleeping?" Kiba snorted. "Go set up a tent somewhere then!"

Max looked for someone to take out that wasn't Kiba. She swooped in, ready to break bones. Max held the wrist with the knife away and kneed the ninja in the stomach. Bad decision. He was wearing some kind of armor under his baggy black sack-shirt-thing.

Max inhaled through her nose, causing her nasal passage ways to burn a bit. She blocked his other hit, and snapped out her wings. _Surprise_! She soared up, holding both his hands and nothing else.

"Gah!" the man cried out. Max smirked. _Not so tough now, are you?! _She soared up a few more feet, then turned tail and pelted to the ground, throwing him at the last second and swooping up to save her own neck. She hovered above him and took his knife as a souvenir. _That's what you get for keeping us from Angel's medicine, bitch. _

Someone kicked her from behind and it hurt. She fell down into the dirt. She rolled as far away as she could and tried to lift herself off the ground. Her wing sent shrieks of pain to her head. She tried to keep afloat with one wing. That took more effort that it did to dodge one of the new ninja's high velocity strikes.

"Is that all you got?" Max sneered, trying to keep the breathiness out of her voice. She tried to get more altitude, but did the best with what she had by sending a kick to his chin. He dodged easily, and gave her a taste of her own medicine.

She grinned through the pain at him as he tried again. "Nice," she allowed.

"Do you always talk this much when you fight?" he asked, slashing at the air in front of her. Oops, he was slashing at her. She wiped away some blood, being as gentle as possible but able to ignore any self inflicted pain. Max loved adrenaline at times.

"I'm bored," Max said..

"Then why don't we start the real fight?"

Max held up the tiny little knife in what she hoped looked like an offensive manner. Her opponent leapt into the air, twirling like a reverse diver as he went. He made his face like a fish's and from what Max could see before she was knocked back—exhaled explosively. She crashed to the ground—exactly on her hurt wing, of course. The wind cuttings didn't cease. She spread her wings—both of them—and forced them to carry her upwards. Her hurt wing strained to keep up with her unforgiving demands but it worked. She hovered above the man who had a lot of lung capacity apparently. He leapt up again, and twirled around, and sent out another round. Max was hit by at least a few, and her flight staggered more and more. The third time he tried it, she swooped in with the knife held out way in front of her. She hit him—_somewhere_ in the chest, but hey, a hit was a hit. And then in a cloud of smoke he disappeared to be replaced by a log with a white cloth tied around it.

"WHAT THE FREAKING—"

She heard the knives hurtling towards her only a split second before she felt them. She sucked in her breath to keep from yelling. She whipped around and saw the ninja a foot away. She leaned back and kicked straight up in an act of desperation. He grabbed her ankle and spun her away. She tried to fly up but all that did was lodge the knives deeper in her and she ate more dirt. She held the earth in her palm and stood up, teetering.

"Now it's getting interesting," she said, but he was already behind her with a knife.

"Move!"

The earth underneath Max literally exploded. She fell into the deep crevices, bouncing back and forth. Blood got in her eyes and it was disgusting but more importantly a handicap.

"Don't kill him!"

Max was so glad she found the strength to roll her eyes. She looked up at the sky, curtained with the canopy. The perfect ridge in the earth was not that deep. She stretched her hands up, her shoulder blades rubbing against the knives, and brought herself up. It wasn't usually a hard move—but it suddenly was with her injuries.

"We'll decide this later," Kiba said. "Where the hell did they all come from?"

"Max? Are you okay?"

"Not until we've got them all," Max yelled. Three ninjas leaped from the skies towards them.

"I've got them," Max said, propelling herself into the air with her hands more than with her wings.

"What the hell—"

She threw as much weight as she could into her kick and knocked two of them together. They crumpled to the ground—for this instant at least. She grabbed the other one' s fist, then kneed him in the face—she learned her lesson from last—and tossed him aside.

"Shit!" someone yelled but Max was too busy with the two on the ground. She got up and one climbed onto the other's hands, and flew into the air. She smirked.

"Try to make it even, are we?" she called.

The grounded one threw knives into the air and the airborne one inhaled.

_Shit_.

She turned tail and crashed through the forest—too much so, she was sure that she was losing feathers everywhere. She did not evade most of the knife though. She whipped around cocooning herself with her wings.

"Kiba watch out!"

"Too late!"

She heard a girlish shriek—but it was Sakura's, and it sounded more angry than scared. The ground cracked again and the enemies all fell in. Max lowered herself to the ground, and rested against a random tree. Sakura looked at the damage. Kiba was not too far behind.

"Where is everyone?" Sakura asked first.

Kiba turned around and looked at Max. "Found one of them."

"Nudge?!" Sakura shrieked.

"Crap," Kiba said.

Clifford bounded towards them.

"Akamaru!" Kiba gasped. He ran to his dog. "What the heck…"

Akamaru's fur was stained red. Akamaru shook his head and barked.

"Nudge is this way, guys, come on," Kiba said. He followed Akamaru through the forest.

Sakura walked over to Max. She didn't look too bad. Her arms were cut up a bit, and her face was only mildly scuffled. Her glossy pink hair was now patched with mud—that was probably the flower's only worry.

Sakura offered Max a hand. Max got up on her own.

"Let's find Nudge," Sakura said.

Max was too tired to reply sharply.

They followed the trail of blood—Max tried not to think about what that meant—and found Kiba and Akamaru with their backs facing them. Max ran around them and gasped.

Nudge was on the ground and she looked awful.

"Sakura—hurry," Kiba cried.

Sakura sat down and put a hand on her head. "Oh, no…" Green magic pooled at Sakura's palms and she lowered them towards Nudge. "How did this happen?" Sakura murmured almost to herself.

"Does it freaking matter? Fix her!" Max ordered. "Be of some use."

Kiba stood up with a force. "You know this is your fault," he snarled.

"Of course it is. Just like how the rest of us getting hurt was yours," Max replied.

"You can't just throw bodies around," Kiba snapped. "Where's your respect?"

"Why would I respect someone who's trying to kill me?"

"If you know anything at all you'd realize that they weren't trying to kill you."

"Kiba, I think some of them were," Sakura cut in. "They might not have been given clear orders…"

Max didn't want to admit that she was a little intimidated by his stature and chiseled canines. Without realizing her added vehemence she countered, "Where were you when she needed her? I took out at least half of them."

Kiba snorted. "Half?! Where were you when we started fighting?! Sakura and I had a hard enough time defending Nudge on our own!"

"She can fight on her own!" Max snapped.

"Obviously not," Kiba whispered, then looked down at Nudge. His eyes lost some of their edge.

"Kiba, Max, it's okay," Sakura said, working her green magic on Nudge. The teen didn't look much better. "We need a better strategy next time—and we should have told Max about the other villages' jutsus. We'll fill her in this time—"

"Okay, first of all, it's not okay." Max said. "Nudge is—we—you—you didn't warn her! If she had known she wouldn't have been like this! How irresponsible are you? If you didn't want to come _why did you_?"

Kiba stepped forward and snarled in her face. "You need to shut the hell up," he growled. "Nudge is hurt—that already happened. Who's the one being the fucking medic and helping her? It's certainly not you—if you were more careful about how you fought, she wouldn't be like this."

"Kiba—stop—"

Max stepped back. "Fine. What the hell. You obviously don't need me."

"No we don't," Kiba agreed.

Max spread her wings, forcing them to be strong and majestic and took off, cursing wildly in her head, at the pain, at Kiba, and at herself.


End file.
